December 04, 2010

U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk delivers national Republican weekly address

Newly minted Republican U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk and Vice President Joseph Biden used the weekly presidential address and partisan response today to debate the fate of soon-to-expire tax cuts.

Biden, substituting for President Barack Obama who was returning from a trip to Afghanistan, pushed Democratic plans to extend the George W. Bush-era tax cuts for families making less than $250,000 a year. Kirk, who was sworn into office Monday by Biden to fill out Obama’s Senate term, warned that increasing the tax on larger incomes unfairly targets small businesses and job creation.

The remarks by the two symbolized the debate in Washington over tax-cut and revenue policy that is driving the lame-duck session of the current Congress.

“Congress should set its highest priority on preventing the massive tax hike currently scheduled to hit our economy on Jan. 1st,” said Kirk, of Highland Park. He said his election and that of other Republicans last month represented a “clear message” to Democrats who currently control Congress that their plans “were just rejected by the American people.”

“By raising taxes in order to fuel higher spending, we threaten to restart the recession, pushing millions of Americans out of work,” Kirk said. “Spend less, borrow less and tax less,” he said, would “put America back to work.”

Biden noted the November increase in the nation’s unemployment rate to 9.8 percent in backing a tax-cut extension for lower incomes. The vice president said raising taxes on middle-class families is “the last thing we should let happen.”

“After a decade in which they lost ground, middle-class families can ill-afford a tax hike—and our economy can’t afford the hit it will take if middle-class families have less money to spend,” Biden said.

Biden also made a pitch to extend unemployment benefits to 2 million jobless workers --- a move opposed by Republicans. He contended the GOP would rather “borrow hundreds of billions of dollars to extend tax cuts” to the wealthy rather than toss a “lifeline” to the unemployed.

All 50 aldermen on the Chicago City Council had to file paperwork earlier this year detailing their outside income and gifts. The Tribune took that ethics paperwork and posted the information here for you to see. You can search by ward number or alderman's last name.

The Cook County Assessor's office has put together lists of projected median property tax bills for all suburban towns and city neighborhoods. We've posted them for you to get a look at who's paying more and who's paying less.

Past posts

Clout has a special meaning in Chicago, where it can be a noun, a verb or an adjective. This exercise of political influence in a uniquely Chicago style was chronicled in the Tribune cartoon "Clout Street" in the early 1980s. Clout Street, the blog, offers an inside look at the politics practiced from Chicago's City Hall to the Statehouse in Springfield, through the eyes of the Tribune's political and government reporters.